My Angel
by Midori Akita
Summary: Roxas kept a secret from Axel. Sometimes, the truth is best, before it's too late.
1. Epilogue

**My Angel**

**By: **Midori Akita

**Summary: **Roxas kept a secret from Axel. Sometimes, the truth is best, before it's too late.

**Pairing:** AkuRoku

**POV: **Roxas and Axel

**DISCLAIMER: **I sadly don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, every single one of them would be gay and Larxene would have died at birth. :D

**A/N:** I'm so going to hell for this. T.T And the fangirls are gonna kill me. O.e I should go lock the doors.

~~~Two Years Ago~~~

Roxas

"Ms Strife?"

Roxas' mother looked up from her book. Roxas was busy studying the whites of his eyes in his mother's compact mirror. Why did they look so….yellow? And ughhh, why did his back hurt so badly? And why, in the name of hell, did he keep puking every other hour?

Let's just say, he felt like utter _crap_.

"Yes, Doctor Ansem?"

"I'd like to speak with you outside, if it's alright with you," he said and motioned outside the room.

Why couldn't he say it whatever he needed to say in front of Roxas?

Experiencing another wave of nausea, Roxas brought his knees up to his chest and rocked back and forth slowly, to maybe try and settle his stomach.

"Damn you, Stomach Fairies," he muttered quietly. Resting his chin on his knees, he sighed.

Right now, he should be with Axel, Sora, and Riku at the movies, watching some movie that they picked when they got there.

But no, instead, Roxas was sick in the hospital, with a doctor secretly telling his mother something.

Something that…..seemed to have her really upset.

"I'm fucked…"

It took _a lot_ to get his mom upset.

Dr. Ansem walked back in, and Roxas' mother walked behind him, her eyes swimming with tears and her lip quivering.

"Roxas….." the doctor began to say, then paused.

"Just say it, what do I have?" he said impatiently.

Normally, Ms. Strife would have scolded her son for being rude to an adult, especially since this particular adult was his doctor. But she didn't say anything, instead she had her face in her hands.

_I'm really fucked._

"I don't want you to be alarmed. We can put you through radiation and chemotherapy and see-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't even _tell _me that I-"

"You have cancer."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

~~~Present~~~

Axel POV

"Wait up Roxas!" Axel said through laughs while chasing Roxas through the Strife family's backyard.

"Gotta catch me~!" Roxas called back and ran faster through the wild grass.

The hot sun shone down on them as they ran, forming beads of sweat on their faces. Axel's black tank top was sticking to his torso and he felt his shoulders beginning to burn.

Axel tackled Roxas from behind, and they tumbled down into the grass together. After rolling around the yard for a while, they grew tired. Axel ended up on top of Roxas, both of them breathing heavily and sweating.

"How the hell do you run that fast?" Axel asked through deep breaths.

"Unlike you, I actually enjoy sports," Roxas replied and stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend.

"I'm too good for sports," he said and tried to nip at Roxas' tongue, which Roxas denied and smirked.

"More like you're too damn lazy."

"Touché, Roxie."

Axel rolled off of Roxas and laid next to him in the grass. Axel looked over at Roxas. The bright sun shone down on his face, making him look almost angelic. A flower petal had floated down from the tree above them, and settled below Roxas' nose. The petal moved back and forth when he breathed. It was almost comical.

"My angel…" Axel murmured while still gazing at Roxas.

Roxas' stomach gave a sickening grumble, and with a groan, Roxas rolled away from Axel and loudly threw up in the grass.

"Way to ruin a moment Roxie…" Axel said and stood up. He picked up Roxas and slung the boy over his shoulder.

"Axel…I can _walk_," Roxas mumbled, and then began to dryly retch.

"Please don't spew on my shoulder?" Axel asked affectionately and brought Roxas inside.

"Hello~?" Axel called through the house. Axel could have sworn that Cloud, Roxas' older brother, and Zack, Cloud's boyfriend, were home when the two boys had gone outside.

After setting Roxas delicately on the couch and placing the remote in his hand, Axel ventured into the kitchen. Tacked on the cheap card table that the Strife family called a dinner table, was a note written in Cloud's nearly illegible handwriting. It said that Cloud and Zack had went out to give Sora, Roxas' other brother, and Riku, Sora's boyfriend, a ride to the movies.

"Great timing, as always," Axel muttered.

He pulled a clean washcloth from the cabinet under the sink and ran it under cold water. Leaving it there for a bit, he grabbed some cups from the counter and poured Ginger Ale into each. He grabbed the washcloth, wrung it out thoroughly, and half-skipped back into the living room.

"Axel, stop acting like my servant," Roxas mumbled. "It's just the heat…"

"I prefer the term 'eternal slave'," Axel said and grinned like Cheshire Cat.

"Fine then, eternal slave."

"Kinky," Axel purred and placed the wash cloth over Roxas' eyes. He placed the cup of Ginger in Roxas' hand and guided it to the boy's mouth, making sure he didn't try to drink it through his nose or anything of that sort.

"Axel, I'm kinda tired…"Roxas mumbled.

"That's okay Roxie." Axel placed Roxas' cup on the dinky little coffee table. "I'm a little tired too."

"Hn…" was all he got as a response.

Chuckling, Axel turned off the lights in the living room and turned the T.V on. Then he lifted Roxas gently and scooted under him, letting Roxas lay on him. Roxas turned his head into Axel's chest and inhaled deeply.

"You smell good…."

Axel smiled and ruffled Roxas' hair gently. Within a minute, Roxas' slow and even breaths told Axel that the boy had fallen asleep. He made a grab for the remote, thankful for his long arms, and turned to Comedy Central. Not wanting to wake Roxas, he muted the volume and turned the captions on. He found himself absentmindedly stroking a lock of Roxas' soft, blonde hair. Axel loved Roxas' hair, more than his own.

**{A/N: Way to be slightly narcissist there, Axel xD}**

Humidity and boredom (the guy on T.V. wasn't all that funny) eventually lulled Axel into a state where he stared at Roxas' full lips and thought absolutely nothing.

He finally snapped out of it, however, when he'd dropped the remote under him and accidentally turned the volume to the T.V. back on. Roxas stirred a little in his sleep. Twitching, Axel glared at the T.V. and reached a hand under him for the remote. What a pain in the ass…

Literally.

He muted the volume and tried to set the remote on the coffee table, only to have it fall to the floor with a thump. He found himself staring at Roxas' lips again. They were so full, and shell pink. Not thinking about waking the boy up, he pressed his lips warmly against Roxas'. His lips were warm, and Roxas' breathe tickled Axel's upper lip.

Satisfied, Axel laid back and closed his eyes. He felt Roxas slowly curl his arms around Axel's waist. He grinned, and wrapped his arms around Roxas.

This is what real love was like.

* * *

**{A/N: Look what I made! :3Axel is dreaming in this little sectioned off spot, and you don't need to know what about. X3}**

Axel woke to the sound of a car alarm going off outside Roxas' house. He was aware that someone was coming up the front porch steps, probably Cloud and Zack, judging by the sound of the shoes. Cloud and Zack constantly wore combat boots, which made a loudish thunk. Sora and Riku tended to wear regular sneakers, so their footsteps were quieter, except when Sora did loud steps for his Cloudasaur impression.

**{A/N: I made that up in about five seconds xD}**

Axel was about to get up and greet his friends, and yes he considered Cloud and Zack as his friends (even if they were 5 years older than him), when he remembered the blonde that was laying on him.

"Roxie. Wakey wakey. Let's see what Cloud and Zack brought home," Axel said gently and shook Roxas' shoulder.

Whenever Cloud and Zack went out, they would remember something that they forgot to get at the store, go in to buy hat forgotten item, and then come back with a hundred awesome things that ranged from rainbow Slinkies that _actually _went down the stairs when you pushed it, to those toilet blocks that turn the water blue when you flush.

"C'mon Roxie-poo, wake up you lazy bum," Axel said and chuckled, still shaking Roxas' shoulder.

"Hey, Roxas! I got you some of those weird-ass Cheetos that turn your mouth blue! Look!" Zack said excitedly and stuck his tongue out, which was now a royal blue colour.

"Are you sure that wasn't from the blue raspberry flavoured co-" Axel cut himself off, expecting an elbow to the ribs from Roxas, which he usually got when he brought up the topic of Zack's fondness of blue raspberry condoms.

Axel suddenly realized that the room wasn't colder than usual; actually his feet were wet with sweat. But where ever Roxas' body touched him, he was ice cold.

"Roxie?" Axel asked hesitantly and picked up Roxas' hand, which had been curled around Axel's waist. He let the hand drop, and watched in surprise as it smacked Roxas in the nose.

….By now, Axel should have at _least_ been bent in pain from a knee-impaled crotch.

"Roxas, stop being such a good actor," Cloud said and threw a bag of Cheetos at Roxas. The bag hit him square in the face, which _definitely _should have made him snap.

"….."

Axle immediately got up, gently lifting Roxas' cold body off of him. He set Roxas down again, and crouched down near his chest. Cloud and Zack began dropping bags of groceries, making some sort of glass break, just as Axel put an ear to Roxas' chest.

"Fuck, I got nothing!"

Axel practically tore the washcloth from Roxas' eyes. They were still closed, still peaceful, pale eyelids covering the angelic blue eyes underneath. Which, as Axel began to run into the kitchen, Cloud lifted up and twitched a small flashlight in Roxas' eye. From what Axel could hear, it wasn't anything good.

He started running the washcloth under the faucet, and cranked the handle over for warm water.

"Come on, come _on!_ Is a little hot water too much to ask for?" Axel yelled at the faucet.

"Axel, stop yelling at inanimate objects and heat water up in the fucking microwave!" Cloud shouted from the living room. Axel could hear Zack running, with his combat boots thundering against the hard wood floors, toward the linens closet to look for some sort of blanket. Axel heard him take off running for another room as he impatiently pushed the buttons on the microwave. Zack soon returned through the hallway, with Roxas' heavy blanket over his arm.

"Come on, Roxas! You can't go yet! Not now!" Cloud shouted. Axel could hear the tears in his voice. "Please, don't give up!"

Not being able to stand sitting and doing nothing, Axel yanked the bowl of water from the microwave, not caring if the scalding water sloshed over the rim and onto his hands.

Axel set the bowl on the coffee table and soaked the wash cloth in the hot water as Cloud began pumping Roxas' still heart. Zack was tucking the blanket loosely around Roxas' legs and waist, and then ran for the phone. He began talking frantically to someone on the other end, and Axel could tell by Zack's face that he being told to calm down.

"I cannot calm down! Just get your ass over here! 73 Hemlock Road, got it memorized?!"

Axel grunted at Zack stealing his line, but put his attention back to Roxas. Placing the washcloth delicately around his face, to _maybe _get some heat back into his cold body, he then buried his face into Roxas' shoulder.

"Roxas…." he murmured. "Please, don't die. You can't leave…"

A tear leaked from his eye and fell onto the sleeve of Roxas' tee-shirt.

Sirens began sounding in the distance, they sounded really far away, but Axel knew with the fast driving and little traffic in Twilight Town, there would get here in three minutes, tops.

"Check his wrist for anything that even _resembles_ a pulse!" Cloud said while still pumping Roxas' heart. He'd taken to practically straddling Roxas, for easier reach to his chest.

All during that, Axel couldn't help but think something that creeped him out more than Vexen.

_A dead person was hugging me. My dead _boyfriend_ was hugging me. And I was hugging him back…_

Axel couldn't help but shudder, as if he'd gotten some sort of cooties from touching Roxas' body.

"Okay, you officially _suck_ at taking a pulse!" Zack exclaimed and shoved Axel out of the way, crouching next to Roxas and taking his wrist in his hand.

Axel, feeling dejected and useless, went outside to wait for the ambulance to show up. No longer than a minute passed by until an orange and white van rounded the corner sharply and screeched to a halt in front of the house.

"He's in there," Axel said as they hurried by him with a stretcher and pointed them into the living room. There was a lot of rustling, presumably the blanket being tossed aside, and within seconds they were hauling Roxas out to the ambulance on a bright orange stretcher.

Axel ran with them to the ambulance. They nodded, as if they knew that he'd want to ride in the back of the ambulance with his boyfriend.

Cloud pushed his way past Axel, and started climbing in the back of the ambulance. "_I'm_ next of kin, you're the boyfriend," he said.

"Both of you get in, and tell that black haired kid to get in the front," a blonde woman with bangs like antennae snapped and started climbing into the back. Another blonde, a man this time, with a mustache and beard was hooking Roxas up to a heart monitor, which instantly showed a flat line.

"Push some epinephrine, Lux," the woman said just as Zack got into the front seat, and the ambulance sped to the hospital.

'Lux' did as he was told and injected Roxas in the arm with some sort of drug; while the woman began setting up the heart paddles. Axel had taken Roxas' hand when he'd found a seat on the ground, and really didn't want to let go. Who really cared if he got a tiny shock?

"This ain't no tiny shock, kid. Better move it," the woman said and rubbed the paddles together. "Charging…..clear." She pressed the paddles to Roxas' chest, which was shirtless, Axel noticed. Roxas's torso jumped up and back down. The heart monitor beeped twice, and then started flat lining again.

"More epi," the woman ordered and went at Roxas with the paddles again.

Nine times they hit Roxas with the paddles. They pushed ten needles of epinephrine into his bloodstream, and Axel was sure that it wasn't a good idea to push anymore.

The woman sighed, and began placing the paddles back onto the stand they had been brutally yanked from. The man checked his watch.

"Time of death: 2:05 pm."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Roxas

Ohh yeah, I'm definitely dead, Roxas thought.

The first thing that brought him to this decision was that he didn't hurt anymore. His stomach didn't feel nauseous. He didn't have radiating back pain anymore. And he bet that if he looked in a mirror, he wouldn't see the jaundice in his eyes.

The second thing that told him he was dead was that he definitely not in Twilight Town anymore. It was summer in Twilight Town, but here, it felt more like October.

Roxas was lying on the cobblestone ground. He slowly opened his eyes, and a bright full moon greeted him.

He recognized the place instantly, by both the well that was about 5 feet away from him, and a guillotine standing plainly in sight.

He was in Halloween Town. Usually, there would be people greeting him, since he'd lived there with his family for a couple years before moving to Twilight Town. But nobody greeted him, there was nobody walking around _to_ greet him. Halloween Town was usually bustling with people, walking across the square to visit Jack and Sally, or to see the mayor, or just to walk aimlessly.

He looked around, not sure of what exactly was going to happen. He pulled himself to his feet and began to walk around. The town was exactly as he remembered it. It was still dark and creepy used to give Sora nightmares sometimes, but Roxas remembered it as a happy place where everyone was friends with each other and everyone was social. Unlike in Twilight Town, where you only knew your friends and their parents and siblings, and your own family, of course. Halloween Town was a warm community. Sure, it had really….well, _strange_ creatures there, but who ever said that someone's outside determines their inside?

Roxas looked down into the well. Water slapped against the edges of the stone well like ocean waves against a cliff.

He turned around and went toward the pumpkin patch, to see if there were any people there.

Footsteps behind him made him freeze in his tracks. He slowly turned around, and then felt his mind blank for a couple of seconds.

He was looking into blue eyes, an exact copy of his own. Brown hair framed those blue eyes, but Roxas recognized the nose and the eye shape of the woman's face.

They were his own features, too.

"Mom?" Roxas asked hesitantly.

"Yes, sweetie, it's me," she said warmly.

"W-what are you doing here?" Roxas asked, and started stepping back.

"We're here to welcome you," another voice said from behind his mother.

A man stepped into Roxas' line of sight, and he recognized his dad by the blonde hair and the similar body build that Roxas himself had inherited. His dad wore the clothes that he had died in, a blue plaid shirt and black jeans. There was a hole in the shirt, a ragged hole with dried blood around the edges of the torn fabric. There was no wound that Roxas could see.

"Honey, we've missed you," his mother said and went to put a hand on Roxas' shoulder.

Roxas recoiled and stepped back more. "Don't touch me."

"Son, we're just trying to help you through this," his dad suggested and reached a hand out.

"I've no fault with you, Dad. But I don't feel like talking to Mom since she _offed herself_," Roxas said coldly. He'd backed up as far as he could, into an edge of metal fencing.

"I'm sorry, Roxas. I was depressed….and not thinking straight-"

"Oh, _you_ were depressed? Yeah, I'm the one with the cancer. If anyone had the better reason to be depressed and off themselves, it was me, Mom. _Me,_" Roxas snapped angrily. "But no, you couldn't face having a dying son; it would ruin the precious family name. So yeah, after you hung yourself with _barbed wire_ from a metal fence post a month after I was diagnosed, Dad, Cloud, Sora and I never saw a damned _cent_ of that fortune you said you had!"

With his every word, hurt flashed in his mother's eyes, as if she was being cut with a knife at every word.

"And now I'm dead. I know. I'm fucking fine with it, except that I can't be with Axel anymore."

His father used that chance to speak up. "Axel seems like a very….nice boy."

Translation: Axel is nice when he isn't being a pervert.

"Yeah. He is."

A weird silence fell upon them like thick fog. Roxas' mother didn't say anything, since she was afraid that Roxas would hate her even more. Roxas' dad didn't know what to say, so he stared at the ground and fiddled with the end of his shirt sleeve.

"So….no cliché white light? No angels with fluffy wings and white robes?" Roxas asked.

"That's hardly realistic," Roxas' dad said. "C'mon."

Roxas allowed his dad to put an arm around his shoulder, and, with a twitch and a lot of resentment, let his mother do that same.

"So wait, if I'm dead, then why are we in Halloween Town?" Roxas asked.

"This isn't actually Halloween Town. It's an image of Halloween Town, since this is where you had your best memories," his father said.

Roxas remembered. He did have his best memories here. He remembered playing with the other kids in the town, not having to worry about everything he had when they moved to Twilight Town. He hadn't had to worry about having cancer, or being a burden on Cloud while Roxas and Sora were too young to have their own places. He remembered before he'd had all the pain inside of him, pain that wasn't from the cancer. His mother had given up hope; his father had been murdered; and his father's sister, Naminé, didn't want to even take him in.

It felt like he'd been rejected all his life. By his mother, by his father, by his aunt. Even a little by God, or whoever that high-and-mighty being was that gave him cancer.

There were only a handful of people that hadn't rejected him. Axel, for one. Cloud and Zack had taken Sora and him in with open arms, even though they'd _really _ wanted a place alone together. Sora, well Sora didn't reject anybody. Hell, even _Riku_, of all people, had taken care of him when people like Seifer and his gorilla-like friends had decided to rough him up.

Thinking of them made Roxas' chest ache, more in guilt than anything else. He felt like he'd failed them all. Like he'd somehow let them down by dying, leaving them back on Earth, without him.

He was being led to the pumpkin patch. A silvery orb hung in the air at the top of the hill, and it seemed to ooze light in the middle of the very dark area.

Roxas' mother instantly stepped into the orb, and promptly disappeared without telling Roxas what the hell the orb was, or where it led to.

"The hell…?" Roxas asked and eyed the orb skeptically.

"Basically, it's the portal to heaven. I'm not going to bother trying to explain all the mechanics of it," his dad said and ruffled Roxas' hair affectionately.

"So….I just step in it and it'll take me to heaven?"

"Yes, but you get a horrible feeling, like you're being squeezed through a rubber tube. Better hold your breath when you step into it."

Roxas nodded and stepped toward the portal. His father yanked him back before he could even touch the mysterious orb.

"You have to go last."

Again, Roxas nodded. His dad stepped forward, sucked in a deep breath, and stepped into the portal. The moment his toe brushed the light, it was as if he was sucked into it.

Roxas looked around. He expected someone to come and say a last goodbye, but then he remembered. There was nobody to say goodbye.

He'd always remember Axel. The way he stroked Roxas' hair. The way they'd joked around over the stupidest things. The way Axel had hit on him nonstop for a week until Roxas agreed to go out with him. The way Axel looked when he was excited, with a green fire flaming in his eyes. The way Axel loved him no matter what Roxas said or did.

Thinking of all of that, Roxas stepped toward the portal. He kept an image of Axel in his head. He reached out a hand and brushed his fingers against the silvery light.

For a second, Roxas could actually _feel_ the portal. It felt soft ad warm against his hand, like ocean water.

The light sucked him in, and he went on the peaceful road up to heaven.

* * *

Mwuahaha, chapter 3 is officially over! :D

I kinda cried writing this so far. 3: It's very angsty. I kinda went a little overboard with Roxas' mom, but it makes for a good story. :3

And also, one cookie if you can guess what _type_ of cancer Roxas has. :D I gave lots of hints.


	4. Chapter 3

Yay for Chapter 3 :D. And also, yay for longer chapters.

And Tsuki Mei gets a cookie for guessing the right type of cancer, after many guesses and two hints. Also, foot cancer, the next epidemic! xD

* * *

Chapter 3

Axel

"What d'you mean he had cancer?!" Axel shouted. He slammed his fist down on the metal arm of the chair outside the hospital morgue. He refused to massage his hand, even though the hit really hurt his fist.

"I mean, he had cancer," Cloud said distantly.

"Well why didn't he tell me?!"

Cloud looked at him with forlorn, blue eyes. He had been crying, but everyone had, even Axel. Yes, he admitted he was crying, and he had a damn good reason.

"Do you remember what our mom was like before she…died?" Cloud asked.

"Overly protective slash obsessive? Yeah, wh-" Axel began to say, then stopped his sentence.

"Yeah. Roxas couldn't stand Mom being like that, let alone anyone else," Cloud said as he leaned against the wall next to Axel. "Only Sora, my parents, Riku, and I knew about it…"

"Riku knew, but not me?! _Riku?_ Really?!" Axel snapped, very pissed off. How could they tell Riku, but not him?

"Well Sora's a fucking blabbermouth, that's why."

Sora, sniffling in the corner of the hallway, raised his head and gave Cloud his best angry face, which didn't work well. "S-shut up Cloud! I tell Riku everything!"

Axel clicked his tongue and crossed his arms. "But still, why couldn't Roxas tell me himself?"

"He didn't want you fussing over him and treating him special all the time, like Mom did."

"I didn't see you and Sora fussing over him!" Axel pointed out.

"We knew better, if we did we usually got kicked in the shins, or worse," Cloud said and rubbed his shin, as if remembering the pain of where Roxas kicked him.

"But I woul-"

"Don't even say that you wouldn't treat him that way! Because you would! You know you would, Axel!" Sora exclaimed and wiped his eyes.

"If I'd _known_-"

"You'd have still done it! Stop complaining about not knowing one little thing about Roxa-"

"It wasn't one little thing! That one little thing is the reason Roxas is dead! He's dead, Sora! He's dead, and he's not coming back!" Axel yelled.

"You don't think I _know_ that?!" Sora snapped and furiously lobbed a water bottle at Axel's face. Axel ducked, but it missed his eye by mere inches. "I know he's dead, why do you think I've been sitting here _crying_ for the last hour and a half?!"

"Guys, seriously knock i-" Cloud attempted to say.

"I don't know, you cry over tons of stuff, it could have been anything!" Axel shouted and threw the bottle back at Sora, clipping his shoulder.

"Shut up you asshat!!" Sora yelled.

"Jesus _Christ!_ Both of you shut your fucking mouths; I could hear you from the damned elevator!" Riku said as he walked back from getting them all food. "What the hell were you even fighting about?"

"Ax-"

"Sor-"

"You know what, just shut up," Riku said impatiently and tossed a sandwich at Axel in an attempt to shut him up. He gave Cloud his BLT, then sat by Sora and shared a chicken sandwich with him.

"You think I can eat after my boyfriend just died?" Axel muttered quietly and left the sandwich untouched.

They waited for another hour, during which Axel refused to eat, drink, or move from his chair, right next to the door to the morgue. Roxas was in there, and he wanted to be as close to him as he could before the funeral.

The coroner finally came and allowed them to take Roxas to the funeral home, a place that sort of smelled bad and was full of flowers and paintings.

They set Roxas in his coffin in a room that branched off from the main hall. The casket was opened, and Roxas had yet to be changed into whatever suit they would put on him.

It had to be a weird job, dressing a dead body. It certainly had to be creepy, touching a dead body. Lots of them, actually.

Axel shuddered a bit, both from the chill in the funeral home and the thought of a corpse-dressing job.

Axel walked over to Roxas as Cloud talked to the people that owned the funeral home. Roxas' eyes were shut, his pale eyelids covering his brilliant blue eyes. He looked at peace, as if he was sleeping and dreaming.

Axel sighed. He was going to miss Roxas _so_ much. He would miss the way he yelled his name when Axel said something slightly inappropriate. The way his eyes shone when he was happy. The way he smiled at Axel.

Axel stroked Roxas' hair one last time, and then turned to follow Cloud and Sora out of the room.

According to Cloud, the funeral was going to be held in five days, Saturday. Roxas was going to be buried in the Halloween Town cemetery, as he'd noted in his will (Axel was surprised Roxas even _had_ a will). Roxas' clothes were left to Sora (the only one that could actually fit into Roxas' clothes), and his video games (including Tekken and Grand Theft Auto) to Zack and Cloud. His room was free for any kind of use.

The lawyer raised an eyebrow as he read the next line of Roxas' handwritten will.

"And to Axel Pyre, I leave my heart."

Axel blinked a couple of times. Roxas left him…his heart. His love.

"Now, does that mean this in a figurative or literal way?" the lawyer asked.

"Figuratively," Axel answered quickly. There was no way Axel would want Roxas' actual heart. He loved him, but….just no.

"Well then, that's all he wrote," the lawyer said and put the documents back in his briefcase. "You can collect your inheritance when you get home. Have a good day."

He walked out of the room, leaving Sora, Cloud, Zack, and Axel alone in an office.

The next day, Axel's parents forced him to go to school. He'd protested loudly and strongly, but was shot down with the 'you'll-be-kicked-out-of-the-house' reply. Axel could have gotten an apartment on his own, he was of legal age, but he didn't want to just yet.

So, against his will, Axel drove himself to school. He was seriously contemplating skipping school and just sitting in Roxas' vacant bedroom all day. But, as karma/fate would have it, the school called home when there were absences. And then Axel would _definitely _be kicked out on his own.

He pulled his car into the school parking lot and scanned the crowd for someone he knew. He didn't feel like standing by himself, waiting for the bell to ring, while everyone stared at the super tall and skinny guy with bright red hair. He hated being the center of attention; it irked him into a state of eye twitchiness.

He soon located Hayner, Pence and Olette on the other side of the school yard. They were Roxas' close friends, so he might as well tell them about the funeral date.

Getting out of the car, he straightened his black hoodie with flames at the sleeves and the bottom hem that Roxas had given him for his last birthday. He wore it as a memoir to Roxas; to his memory.

Axel sighed and walked across the schoolyard, dodging clumsy little kids in 7th grade (and possibly under, they got shorter every year!). He scooted around oversized backpacks stuffed with books and school work and gym clothes, and receiving a couple of shoulder bags to the stomach in the process.

He reached Hayner, Pence and Olette. They were speaking about some sort of event the school was putting together, not that Axel cared. When Olette saw Axel standing behind Hayner, she squeaked.

They instantly bombarded him with questions and comments like 'I'm so sorry' and others like it. It was mostly Olette that was firing off questions like a machine gun.

"The funeral's on Saturday," was all he said, and then he left, not wanting to be the center of attention once again.

He walked to his locker, painted bright red like those around it. He tossed his French book in his locker and pulled his English binder from the messy locker. He didn't bother to lock it after closing it, and went into homeroom. He sat down at his seat, and felt his heart ache as he subconsciously stared at the seat next to him where Roxas used to sit. With a heavy heart, he averted his eyes to the window and stared at the tree that was outside the window. There was an interesting pattern in the bark, the way some lines curved, and some were straight.

Once everyone got into homeroom, the teacher in the room went completely OCD on everyone with the gap in the seating. She made Olette, who used to sit behind Roxas, move up one desk into Roxas' seat.

Not one day, and Roxas was already being replaced.

Sighing, Axel turned his head toward the window, trying to signal Olette to not ask him any questions.

A bell rang from the speakers, and a couple of people went to walk out, but were stopped by the teacher barking for everyone to sit down.

"Axel Pyre to the counseling office, Axel Pyre to the counseling office," the female voice said over the loudspeaker, then turned the speaker off.

Axel booked up his binder and pen, and walked quickly out the door. Eyes followed him, and at this point he didn't care. He was too busy wondering why the hell the _counselor_ of all people wanted to see him.

"Ah, Axel, Mrs. Aivonej is in that room," the office secretary said and pointed to a room on the left.

Wait….since when was Riku's mother a counselor at the school?

Axel went into the office and sat down. Across from him sat a woman that looked exactly like Riku, with aqua coloured eyes and silver hair.

"Good morning, Axel," she said and folded her hands on her desk.

"Hi," he said curtly, and already assumed what she wanted to talk about.

"I'd like to talk to you ab-"

The bell ringing interrupted her, and Axel got up. "I'm sorry, I can't be late for class again," he said and walked out of the room.

That was a _little_ too close.

He really didn't want to talk about Roxas. It hurt too much. Thinking his name made his heart ache and his body hurt. It made him wish he was dead, so he could be with Roxas.

He walked into his English classroom and proceeded to stare out the window without thinking of anything. His mind had been put on hold, if only for one period. Next he had gym, so he'd have to think unless he wanted to run into the wall.

So he stared out the window, missing just about everything the teacher said. He could tell the she was mad by the look she gave him when he got up to leave when the bell rang.

Running in gym was boring and uneventful. They were currently playing kickball, so when Axel was up he kicked the ball as hard as he could, visioning the cheap, Styrofoam ball sort of as a personification of cancer. It went straight to the back wall of the gym, hitting the pillars in between windows and giving Axel an automatic homerun.

He ignored the cheers and yells of his team, congratulating him on 'an awesome kick'. At the moment, he did not feel awesome. He stayed silent, flat faced, and refused to high-five anyone that wanted him to do so. He went to the back of the line when he was done running the bases, and sat on one of the bleachers.

When the class was over (his team won by seven points, no thanks to them) he went into the locker room and changed into his plain black tee-shirt and baggy jeans. He zipped up his jacket, and paused for a moment, remembering when Roxas gave it to him.

It was a small party, held at the pizza place that Zack and Cloud ran together. They'd eaten as much pizza as they could, which, for Axel, was five slices of roasted green pepper, ham, and extra cheese. Afterward, when they were opening presents, Roxas kissed him and really made it feel like a day worth celebrating.

Axel stepped out of the locker room and headed to his locker again. Opening the small, metal closet, his eyes fell on a small picture of him and Roxas at last year's Snow Ball.

He didn't want to hurt anymore, at least for now, so he stuffed his gym clothes in his locker and got his things for the next two periods, European History and English. Those classes normally flew by very quickly. But, to Axel's dismay, he'd sat next to Roxas in both of those classes. Luckily, his teachers weren't OCD, unlike his homeroom teacher, and didn't move someone into Roxas' seat. Yet, anyway.

In lunch, he sat by Sora, Riku, Hayner and Pence. This was the period where Olette and Roxas had science together, and Axel would meet Roxas outside the room so they could walk to their next class.

He shook his head. No. Do _not_ think about him, he told himself mentally. It won't do you any good.

He went with the others to wait in line for lunch, and soon had some kind of taco that dripped meat grease out the end whenever you picked it up. This was usual for the school 'tacos', so they'd grabbed an extensive amount of napkins before sitting down.

"Axel, we have a game today," Riku reminded him.

Oh, right. Axel played varsity baseball, and he had games every Friday.

"Kay."

_Roxas was good at basketball…_

He slapped the back of his head, as if he could knock the thought out of his ears. After taking a bite of the dripping taco, he decided he wasn't all that hungry. He got up and threw away his food, keeping only the small carton of chocolate milk.

"Axel, eat something you skinny person!" Sora said and poked his side, making him twitch. Yes, Axel was ticklish. Tickle, and you die.

"I'm not hungry…" Axel muttered and took a sip of his milk.

Hayner sighed angrily. "Stop being anorexic, forget about Roxas, and eat some fucking food. Now. _Before_ I shove this taco in your mouth."

Axel felt his mind practically set on fire from the mention of Roxas. How dare Hayner bring Roxas up so soon after he died? He clenched his fist and was making up his mind whether to punch Hayner's face or his stomach.

"Replay that in your head, and realize how wrong that sounds," Riku chimed in from the other side of Axel.

Hayner's eye twitched. "You have a dirty mind, Riku. I dunno how Sora stands it."

Riku shrugged. "Anyone has a dirty mind compared to Sora. He still thinks that people only have sex after they're married."

Both Hayner and Axel snorted. Axel's fist slowly unclenched.

Axel gave up on his hunger strike and swiped Sora's curly fries when he wasn't looking. Riku aimed to take a stab at Axel's hand with his fork, but missed when Axel whisked his hand from harm's way.

"Mine, bitch," Axel said and grinned. He ate a fry. Somehow, the school only made the cornbread and the curly fries so they were edible, and anything else had a risk of food poisoning.

Riku stuck his tongue out and settled on grabbed a chunk of Sora's cornbread while Sora was talking to Olette.

After a lunch of stealing Sora's food, they had to explain to him that Santa did _not _rape him at night (they left out that it was probably Riku instead of Santa and that if it was Riku, it wasn't rape) thanks to Hayner's big mouth.

The next three periods went by fast, to Axel's surprise. Usually these last few classes ticked by slowly, especially since….._he_ wasn't in any of Axel's classes.

He got on his bus and shoved his iPod in his ears, ignoring the chiding comments about his 'little faggot boyfriend'. He flipped a finger at them through the window, and then turned around, leaning against the cold window. He could feel the rain running down his neck from the open window, and scowled. It had to rain when he had to walk home?

He sighed. Balls of paper hit his head through the bus ride, and finally he got so annoyed and lobbed his copy of _I Am the Cheese _(English class…like he would actually _read_ outside of school) at one of their heads.

"Queer!" they yelled and threw it back at him.

"And fuckin' proud, douchebag," he said and caught the book easily. He wanted to trip the dumbshit when he passed by, but that was childish. It would serve better to wait until the next time he had gym, and hit the boy in the head with a basketball.

Yes, that is the answer to all problems. Hit them in the head with sports equipment.

Axel pulled his hood over his head when he got off the bus in a feeble attempt to stop the rain from soaking his hair more than it already was. The rain came down in freezing sheets, the wind blew it right into Axel's face, making his cheeks sting and his eyes water. The road back to Axel's house was long and had one giant, annoying hill to walk up. Axel _hoped_ that the road hadn't flooded from the small stream that ran under the giant hill, and fortunately for him, it wasn't. He ran the rest of the way home, not able to tolerate the cold, numb feeling that the rain gave him. He splashed through a couple of deep puddles, getting water and possibly some dirt in his Converses. At the moment, he didn't care that his feet, along with the rest of his body and everything in his school bag, were sopping wet. At the moment, he didn't care that Reno was going to kill him if he tracked mud through the house. At the moment, all he cared about was a hot shower.

He dropped his bag by the front door of his house, err….trailer, once he unlocked he door and let himself in. He paused to wring his hair out in the sink, and put his jacket and socks on top of the dryer. Axel went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water, not even bothering to touch the knob for cold water. Hot water soothed his muscles, mind and body, and that was exactly what he needed. Plus, if you need to throw something, you could throw the bar of soap angrily on the shower floor and use the excuse of the soap slipping out of your hand.

In the middle of his shower, he heard either his mother or his brother Reno pull into the driveway and walk into the house. They threw their keys on that table or counter, then they settled in the living room and turned on the T.V. Axel could hear bits and pieces of the dialogue on the television, but his hearing wasn't _that_ good.

Axel realized, somewhere in between rinsing and repeating, that he was tired of the same schedule. Everyday he came home, threw his bag by the door, and took a shower. Everyday, either his mother or Reno would come home and watch television while he was showering. Everyday, his mother would pass out drunk on the couch after her 3rd bottle of booze. Everyday, his dad would call him a fag or call him gay or some other profane words for liking men. Everyday he'd deal with his homophobic dad, his alcoholic mother, and his lethargic brother. Everyday he'd be scorned or ridiculed in some way, shape, or form, most of it for stupid reasons. He really was sick of having to paint or his locker when some wiseass freshmen decided to scratch 'queer' on his locker for the millionth time. He was tired of having to pick up his mother's beer bottles after she finally decided to let someone sit on the couch and go into her bedroom. He couldn't stand getting called names by his own father, and occasionally getting hit for 'mouthing off'. He was aggravated that all Reno did was sit his ass on the couch, eat the food Axel paid for, then get that food all over the place and leave it for Axel to clean up.

He _had_ to get out of this place.

He turned off the water and dried himself off with a soft towel. Dressing himself, he wondered where he would go, and what he would do when he got there. Could he afford an apartment on his own? Could he find someone else to share an apartment with? Could he even get _away_ from this damned house?

_I have to try_, he thought and escaped to his room. He didn't own many possessions, just a beat up old dresser that had his clothes, an old bed with a rusting metal frame, and a bedside table that he kept his iPod and phone on when he slept. The walls were painted a plain white, and the room itself was barely the size of a closet. His own closet was even smaller, and only had enough room for a couple of cardboard boxes that had his important things in, like gifts from his friends and food he didn't want Reno to find and eat. Some boxes were empty, and they had been left so for a while, just in case Axel ever wanted to leave before now.

He piled his clothes in two of the larger boxes and stacked them on top of each other on the worn carpet. He folded up his comforter, one that Sora, Riku, and Roxas had given him when Sora spilled a crapload of salsa on his old one, and put it in the only box that it would fit in. He packed his important things into an old backpack that he never used and threw it over his shoulder, tightening the strap again when it turned out too big.

It turned out that Reno had come home first, but his mother had arrived shortly afterward. She was already passed out on the couch, and empty beer bottle hanging from her hand, and not snoring just yet. Reno was at the kitchen counter, stuffing his face with the Doritos that Axel had just bought yesterday.

"Whash that schtuff for?" Reno asked with a mouth full of orange chips.

"I'm leaving," Axel said bluntly and began piling boxes next to the door. He was shifting through the coats that invaded the hallway closet, looking for his rain jacket and umbrella.

"Noo way dude. You _cannot_ leave," Reno said and started to pick up a box. Axel kicked him lightly in the back of the knee, making his leg collapse under him. "The fuck?!"

"I'm leaving, and you can't stop me."

"But…_why?_"

Axel snorted. Even a complete dunce like Reno should have seen him moping around the house all day. It wasn't even that hard to miss, when Axel moped, he dragged his feet across the floor loudly and ate so much food that he could possibly rival Reno in consumption per hour.

"You can't _see_? I can't stand it here!" Axel half-yelled, only because of Reno's stupidity.

"Okay, Mom's been a little heavy on the booze lately, but that's no rea-"

"You think it's _just_ Mom? Ohhhh no, Reno. It's more than just Mom. It's you, too. And Dad."

"What the fuck did I do?" he asked and slapped Axel's hand away from the open back of Doritos. Axel dug his fingernails into the back of Reno's hand. He wanted some fuckin' Doritos, and he'd get them. He grinned in victory when Reno withdrew his hand and let Axel take some of the nacho cheese chips.

"Well you're a lazy bastard, you can't get a job worth shit, you don't do anything around the house, you make me clean up after Mom, and you constantly eat the food _I_ pay for," Axel said and counted the reasons on his crumb topped fingers. He paused to lick the orange crumbs off. "I'm also sick of Dad calling me 'fag' and 'queer' every other chance he gets. Plus I can't stand the fact that I can't have a decent conversation with my mother without her mumbling some bullshit about 'pretty squirrels'."

Reno narrowed his eyes as he rubbed the back of his hand. "So you're basically running away like a pansy?"

"Running away, leaving, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. But yeah, I'm leaving and probably not coming back."

Axel finally found his raincoat and umbrella in the closet full of stuff their family never wore and/or used. He put on the raincoat and started piling boxes up in his arms. Looking out the peephole in the door, he saw it wasn't raining anymore.

"Excellent," Axel remarked and pulled he raincoat from his arms, but he still carried it with him. "Bye then."

Leaving Reno speechless, he grabbed his car keys from the key bowl on the counter and went out the door, smiling as he walked. He opened the car door and held it open with his hip, piling the boxes in the backseat. He hummed the tune to a Paramore song he forgot the name of, but decided it was good enough until he could put his iPod on without getting a ticket from some police officer. Axel got in the front seat, started the car, and pulled out of his driveway.

God he missed this car. He was only allowed to drive his red Chevy on weekends, since 'the bus is good enough for a fag like him', according to his father. So he felt isolated from the car, as if the car were a part of his body that got ripped from him every Monday morning.

He sighed and drove into the center of Twilight Town, searching for the street sign that he'd passed so many time before, always from this direction, always going to the same house.

Axel stepped out of the car as he pulled out in front of the house on Hemlock Road. He walked up the three stone steps and paused before knocking on the red painted door.

What if they didn't let him stay there? Then he'd have to go back to his house, and face the wrath of his father and Reno, and then he'd receive a couple of snores and mutters of 'narwhals'.

Axel sucked in a breath and let his knuckles rap sharply against the door. There were footsteps inside, reassuring Axel that somebody actually was home.

The door opened and revealed the face he'd seen many time in his past, with bright blue eyes and spiky blonde hair.

"Hey, Cloud, do you think I could move in with you guys?"


	5. Chapter 4

I really like where I'm going with this. :3 I also love how I described Axel's mother. 'Pretty squirrels' xD Lmao.

I'm pretty sure there's only gonna be one more chapter. Unless I get a new idea, that's the way it's gonna stay. :3

Welp, enough with my useless drabbling, time for Chapter 4!

Axel slept in Sora's bed that night, though he profoundly refused. Cloud insisted on it, and made Sora sleep on the floor with a sleeping bag. Axel slept well, which he hadn't in a while. His dreams had been visited by images of Roxas, and he was constantly woken up by his face. But tonight, while he was in Roxas' house, he felt at ease. He blacked out as soon as he hit the pillow, which was probably a result from both his mental stress and slight depression. His dreams were either nonexistent, or he didn't remember them.

He woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon, a combination that made his stomach growl. Untangling the sheets from his leg, he noticed that Sora was still asleep on the ground, curled up in the neon orange sleeping bag like a kitten. He took care to not step on Sora; a cranky Sora is a deadly Sora, after all.

Axel walked into the bathroom before heading to the kitchen to make sure his hair was at least semi-presentable, and wiped the crust from the corners of his eyes. He splashed water over his face in an attempt to wake himself up, but without his morning coffee (with a respectable amount of sugar, thank you very much), it was next to impossible.

He walked into the kitchen, dragging his socked feet over the carpet, and collected some amount of static in the process. As he passed Cloud, he poked the blonde's ear and grinned when he jumped from the shock.

"Knock it off, punk," Cloud chided good naturedly and tossed him a Styrofoam cup, which he'd been searching for.

"Thanks," Axel said and stifled a yawn. Cloud and Zack were at the kitchen table, with a giant stack of pancakes in the middle. The morning paper was between them, and it seemed that they were fighting over the Sports section. Riku sat at the other end of the table, wolfing down pancakes drowned in syrup like a starving man. "Want some pancakes with that syrup?" he asked while getting some vanilla smelling coffee. Riku merely nodded and continued eating. Axel got his own plate and piled four pancakes onto it, gratefully pouring syrup over them as steam rolled off of them in wispy swirls. After devouring one pancake, he decided that his coffee should be cooled off enough to drink. He gripped the cup in his hands and blew gently, grinning when the scent of the vanilla coffee hit his nose. He loved the way Styrofoam worked; you could hold a boiling cup of coffee perfectly normal, without having it give you second degree burns.

Of course, it never gave a hint that the coffee was still hot, and Axel jumped when his drink scorched his upper lip and tongue.

"Ow!"

Cloud and Zack snickered as he spit coffee on his pancakes. He glared at them and wiped his searing lip with a napkin, tossing it into the trash after removing the coffee from his face.

"Okay, asshats, who's waking up Sora today?" Axel asked and took a large chunk out of his pancakes.

Axel had slept over the Strife home to know what the family did every morning. They battled over who would wake Sora up, and whoever did was usually kicked and/or punched by a barely awake Sora.

"I did yesterday," Cloud said and got another three pancakes from the pile.

"I got the day before," Zack said and brought his fingers to his lip, which Sora had busted open when he accidentally hit Zack in the mouth.

"I think today is Ro…..Riku's day," Axel said, correcting himself when he almost said _his_ name. Today would have been Roxas' day to attempt to wake up Sora; he held the slot for every Saturday. Now, Axel guessed either he or Riku would take over that spot, probably Riku, since Sora was more tolerant of the silver haired man than any of the others.

"Riku should be here soon…" Cloud said absentmindedly as he fussed over Zack's lip. "I hope that doesn't scar."

Riku frowned. "Cloud, I'm right here you _dumbass_!" he exclaimed and threw a packet of sugar down Cloud's shirt. Zack's hand went to retrieve it, while Cloud laughed from being ticklish.

"Thanks, this coffee needs more sugar!" Zack said cheerily and dumped the sugar packet into his cup.

"But _Zaaaack!_" Cloud whined. "I don't want you to have a scar!"

"Scars look cool, Cloud. Don't worry," Zack said and rubbed Cloud's hand.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Don't start making out if you value my sanity." Cloud grinned evilly and kissed Zack, obviously making a show out of it so that Axel's brain would be damaged.

"Riku, save my sanity!!" Axel exclaimed.

"I don't save pyromaniacs that can easily save themselves by moving into another room," Riku said as he looked up from his pancakes, then shielded his eyes when he got an eyeful of Zack and Cloud. "Or shielding yours eyes."

"Shut up, Riku. And enjoy waking up Sora every Saturday."

Riku snorted. "I already do it on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I don't give a damn about one more day." Riku got up and went to the fridge and got some milk. He didn't grab a cup, but drank some directly from the carton.

Cloud, who was facing away from Riku, broke away from Zack. "You better not be drinking that milk straight from the carton," he warned.

Riku blinked a couple of times, then slowly inched toward the counter, where a stack of cups was. He quietly grabbed one and filled it with milk, taking a sip just as Cloud turned around. Cloud was a major germaphobe when it came to anyone besides Zack, and if anyone put their mouths on something, he instantly went senile.

"Smoooth," Axel purred and finished off his breakfast. "Now go wake the deadly teddy bear."

"Meh," Riku said and shrugged. "It's not like we're going anywhere anytime soon, I'll let him sleep."

Axel dumped his plate into the garbage and washed his fork off in the sink. "Awww, ain't it adowable? Wiku is gonna let Sowa sweep wonger!" he cooed. Riku threw a dish towel at his head and stuck his tongue out.

It got quiet all of a sudden, one of those loud silences that you can't _help_ but notice. An awkward silence was sparked with tension between Cloud, Zack, Riku, and Axel. Riku and Axel had sat down at the table, occasionally sipping a drink or fidgeting, but not talking.

"Are we all thinking about the empty spot at the table?" Zack asked, shattering the silence like a piece of porcelain. All eyes turned to the empty side of the table, where Roxas would sit every morning, grumpy and tired, drinking orange juice in an innocent sort of way.

Axel automatically got up from his chair, pushing it back in with more force than necessary and making it slam against the table. He stormed off into Sora's room, leaving the others behind with stunned looks on their faces.

He was then faced with a problem. Sora must have briefly woken up, if only for a moment, and climbed back into his owned bed. He'd also taken the sleeping bag with him, leaving Axel with a lone pillow and the plush, yet still uncomfortable, carpet.

He groaned, agitated, and slammed the door shut, not thinking that it might wake up Sora. He didn't need Sora's fluffy wrath aimed at him, so he hid behind the desk for a bit, incase the brunette woke up and took a wild swing at him.

Collapsing on the ground, he buried his face in the pillow. It smelled sweet, like the scent that Sora usually carried around with him. He couldn't stand the sickly sweet scent, so he tossed it aside and stood up from the ground. He went into the hallway, into the seemingly forbidden doorway that was Roxas' room.

Axel opened the door silently, as if something was waiting for him on the other side of the door. He looked around the room quickly. Most of Roxas' stuff had been given to Sora, Cloud, and Zack, but the room was still the same as when Axel was last in it. Roxas' school bag was still on the floor, messy and unorganized as usual. He could see the project that was due in a week sticking out from Roxas' folder. The school had reclaimed all the textbooks and library books that had been scattered around the room, and they'd taken a couple of Roxas' sports jersey to hang them….somewhere.

Axel sighed and felt tears pricking at his eyes. He went over to the bed, staring at the unmade sheets and the comforter-less state of it. He could almost imagine Roxas laying in it, sheets drawn up to his chin, blonde hair sticking up in its usual bed head state.

He grabbed this pillow from the bed, with its blue and white striped pillowcase, went into Sora's room and lay on the floor. He set the pillow under his head and breathed in the scent of it. It still smelled like Roxas, even though the room had been sealed and abandoned for a while. The scent made him remember the way Roxas' hair had smelled when he'd get out of a shower, like strawberries with a subtle hint of some kind of citrus. Axel sighed into the pillow again, and slowly felt himself being dragged into sleep.

He was in a place he didn't recognize. The place was chilly, like it would be near the end of autumn, and very dark. A full moon hung in the sky, bright with a slight yellow tint to it. He heard some kind of wolf or dog howling far away. He seemed to be in a town square, with a cobbled circle around a well. Axel didn't bother to look in the well, he knew it would either be empty, have water, or something much worse, and he really didn't want to find out.

"How can I dream about somewhere I've never been?" he wondered out loud.

"It's very simple, actually," he heard a voice from behind him, echoing in the silence.

Axel turned around, looking to see who had spoken. His heart wrenched when he saw a girl with hair a red darker than his own, and blue eyes. Her face had multiple scars on it, and Axel could see that they went down her neck and covered the rest of her body. She wore a white dress, with a single flower tucked behind her ravaged ear, the same dress that she'd worn when they buried her three years ago.

"Kairi…?" he asked hesitantly.

His sister nodded. "When certain people pass on, the one they most loved sees where they go through dreams and the real world." Kairi went to tuck her hair behind her left ear, the side without the flower. She paused when she realized that there _was_ no ear, just a scarred, flat space where it should have been. Blinking a couple of times, she let her hand drop back down to her side.

"Wha-"

"Do not interrupt, there isn't much time," Kairi said. "I must leave when you wake up." She must have seen Axel's look of confusion, since she continued. "I was not permitted, under any circumstances, to visit you. I'm in trouble already."

"Then why did you come here?" Axel asked before she could cut him off again.

"If I did not, both you and Roxas would suffer for it."

Axel ran a hand through his hair and started to slowly walk towards Kairi. After putting his hand on her bare shoulder, making sure she was real, he drew her into a tight hug. She didn't move as he hugged her, and didn't hug him back. Her arms hung limply at her sides, her chin on his shoulder.

"I missed you Kairi," he murmured.

"You're wasting precious time, you know," she said coldly and stepped out of his embrace. She walked over to the well in the middle of the square, leaving Axel's ego a little frayed. Why was she not being her usual self, the way she was before she was murdered?

Three years ago, years that seemed so far in the past, his little sister had been put in the hospital for a fractured ankle. She'd been thirteen at the time, so full of laughter and spunk that Axel had compared her to Sora practically every day. When Axel, Reno and their parents had went out to get some lunch from the diner, they'd returned to find Kairi dead. She had multiple cut and stab wounds, and her ears had been cut off as well. The autopsy told them that she'd been raped. They almost pressed charges against the hospital for practically letting a rapist mosey on into the hospital and not realizing it. The court order hadn't gone through, and the police never caught the monster that killed their little ball of sunshine. Kairi's murder had been what caused their mother to start drinking, but their father had always been the homophobic, religious maniac that he was today, though less when Kairi was there. Axel didn't blame Kairi for his mother's alcoholism; he could never blame her for something that she couldn't have stopped.

Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair again. "Okay, so what do you need to tell me?" he asked and went over to the well next to her.

She peered over the side of the well momentarily. "Look into the well, Axel," she said, then skimmed her fingers over the surface of the murky, green water that was about a foot from the mouth of the well.

The surface of the water shimmered even after she took her hand from it. Shapes began to form in its depths, creating the profile of a man. The man had very tanned skin, slicked back, white hair, and yellow eyes.

"If you want to prevent yours and Roxas' suffering, this is the man you must kill." Axel arched an eyebrow and Kairi looked up at him. "But it will not be an easy task t-"

"Okay…you lost me. Start from the beginning!"

Kairi sighed. "Remember what I said about the one a dead person most loved sees where they go through dreams and the real world?" Axel nodded. "Well that's what will happen to you, since Roxas Strife loved you the most." Axel's heart thumped at the thought of Roxas loving him the most out of everyone. "You will see everywhere Roxas goes, through his eyes, whether it is here or another world completely."

"But you said certain individuals…what defines whether most loved people see things or not?"

"It depends on the person that loved them," Kairi said and sat on the edge of the well, crossing her legs under the long dress. "If the person that loved them has unfinished tasks that tie them to the Earth, then they cannot pass into the next world."

Axel hesitantly sat on the edge of the well next to his sister, taking care not to lose his balance and fall backwards. Even if this was a dream, he wasn't taking any chances.

"Unfinished tasks…then why is Roxas still tied here? He _had_ no unfinished tasks," Axel said.

"Ah," Kairi replied and held up a finger. "You must be forgetting the murders of his parents."

"Kairi, you're wrong. Roxas' father was the only one that was murdered," Axel said.

Kairi snorted. "You honestly think Roxas' mother committed suicide?" she asked mockingly. "Women are vain, all women. If we do commit suicide, we tend to stay below the collarbone." She stroked a scar on her cheek with her index finger.

"…So she was murdered." Axel knew that Roxas' mother was vainer than most women, not able to even have her eyelashes clump together. "But, Kairi, Roxas wasn't like that. He wouldn't want revenge."

Kairi clicked her tongue. "You may think you knew Roxas, but one can never know all of the wants that lie within the heart of their lover."

Axel sighed and abandoned the topic, not wanting to fight with his younger sister.

"You haven't said how that man ties into this, or why we'd both be suffering," he pointed out and shivered in the chilly air.

Kairi took no note of the cold, but was running her fingers down the length of her arm, where a scar ran from her elbow to the palm of her hand.

"I cannot tell you the man's name, since I cannot interfere more than I have already," she murmured, and then continued in a stronger voice. "But I can tell you that he is the reason Roxas is no longer with you."

Axel's thoughts stalled momentarily. "Are you telling me that this man gave Roxas cancer? What, did he create it?"

Kairi shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger.

"The complete opposite, as a matter of fact. Roxas may have been diagnosed with cancer; he may have had the same symptoms, but that was _not_, cancer."

"So he was misdiagnosed?" Axel asked. The full moon was going down in the sky, making it seem as if sunrise was near.

"_Purposely_ misdiagnosed. And anyone trained to do an autopsy would have noticed if there was a tumor or not. I can tell you now, there was no tumor," Kairi explained and played with one of the ruffles on her dress.

"Purposely? So that means…" Axel began to say, then trailed off, not sure of the right word to use.

"Corruption in the hospital," Kairi finished for him. "Whoever diagnosed him, whoever did his autopsy, was set on making it seem like he had cancer."

Axel scratched his temple, adding the information up in his head. "What are you basing this on? You haven't given me a good reason _how_ you know that Roxas didn't have cancer."

Kairi sighed impatiently. "You know that Roxas had pancreatic cancer, right?" Axel nodded. "The survival rate of pancreatic cancer is hovering around 4.6 percent, Axel. _Four point six._ That's a chance not worth shit." Axel gave her a skeptical look, she usually never cursed. Kairi only rolled her eyes at him.

"Pancreatic cancer patients are in _pain_. Did you ever see Roxas with medication? Ever have him going to an acupuncturist or a massage therapist or any of those phony pain relievers?"

"No. But _explain_ why he had the symptoms. I don't think jaundice is the easiest thing to fake," Axel said and stretched his arms out. Sitting on the well was making his ass numb, as well as hurting his back.

"This doesn't happen in most cases, but some patients receive an injection every month that's supposed to help shrink the tumor. Whoever was corrupted was administering the injections, injections with medication that gave him the jaundice and the nausea."

Axel groaned. He'd been so stupid. He hadn't realized that Roxas was actually sick in the first place, and then he'd missed that Roxas and everyone else were being fooled all along.

"Axel, do you realize how important it is to kill this man?" Kairi asked and looked him in the eye. "If you don't, everyone, including you, will suffer for it!"

"I get it, Kairi, I get it!" Axel exclaimed. "But…I think you know more about this than you should. Why haven't you moved on yet?"

Kairi sighed. "As long as the man is alive, I cannot move on, like Roxas. I hover around our old house, usually."

Axel thought back to when Sora was complaining of dreaming of places he'd never been, when he was both dreaming and awake.

"You love Sora, don't you?" Axel asked gently.

Kairi grimaced. "Yes. I have been connected to Sora for all this time, and now he has gone off with Riku." She sighed. "I wish things could have been different. Sora would not have to see everywhere I go when he sleeps, would not have to suffer from thinking he's gone insane when he watches where I go while he is awake."

"Sora is fine," Axel reassured her and rubbed her shoulder. "He's really happy now, though he still sleeps too much."

Kairi's eyes suddenly shot up to the moon, which was just beginning to sink below the horizon.

"Dammit," she hissed. Axel gasped as her body began to fade away. "Time is up."

"Wait, Kairi! You have to tell me how Roxas will suffer!" he exclaimed and went to grab Kairi's hand. His own hand touched the stone of the well. Kairi's mouth was forming words, but Axel couldn't hear them. "Kairi!"

She disappeared completely as the full moon completely dipped below the dark horizon.

"Gah!" Axel exclaimed as he shot upright from his position on the ground of Sora's bedroom. He'd rolled away from his original spot sometime during his disturbing nap, and was currently lying in the middle of the room. He looked over to Sora's bed and saw that it was empty.

"I hope I didn't talk in my damn sleep," Axel said as he yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Don't worry, you didn't," a familiar voice said. Twisting his body completely around, he saw a skinny figure sitting cross-legged on Sora's computer chair. His whole body was pale and transparent, as if he'd been painted in watered-down paint. Blonde hair stuck up at odd angles, and blue eyes looked back at him with a spark in them that Axel loved.

"Roxas?!"


End file.
